James B. Mc Creary - First Term As Governor

First Term As Governor

In 1875, McCreary was one of four men, all former Confederate soldiers, who sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination—the others being John Stuart Williams, J. Stoddard Johnson, and George B. Hodge. Williams was considered the favorite for the nomination at the outset of the Democratic nominating convention, despite attacks on his character by newspapers in the western part of the state. However, McCreary defeated Williams on the fourth ballot.

The Republicans nominated John Marshall Harlan, who had served in the Union Army. In joint debates across the state, McCreary stressed what many Kentuckians felt were abuses of power by Republican President Ulysses S. Grant during the Reconstruction Era. Harlan countered by faulting the state's Democratic politicians for continuing to dwell on war issues almost a decade after the war's end. He also attacked what he perceived as Democratic financial extravagance and the high number of pardons granted by sitting Democratic governor Preston Leslie. Harlan claimed these as evidence of widespread corruption in the Democratic Party. McCreary received solid support from the state's newspapers, nearly all of which had Democratic sympathies. Despite a late infusion of cash and stump speakers in favor of his opponent, McCreary won the general election by a vote of 130,026 to 94,236.

At the time of McCreary's election, his wife Kate was the youngest first lady in the Commonwealth's history. Due to the near completion of an annex to the state capitol building by the time of McCreary's inauguration, he was able to move the official governor's office out of the governor's mansion, freeing his family from the intrusion of public business into their private quarters. McCreary's receipt of the executive journal and Great Seal of the Commonwealth from outgoing Governor Leslie in the mansion's office is believed to be the last official act performed by a governor there.

In the wake of the Panic of 1873, the electorate was primarily concerned with economic issues. In his first address to the General Assembly, McCreary focused on economic issues to the near exclusion of providing any leadership or direction in the area of government reforms. (In later years, McCreary's unwillingness to take a definite stand on key issues of reform would earn him the nicknames "Bothsides" McCreary and "Oily Jeems".) In response to McCreary's address, legislators from the rural, agrarian areas of the state proposed lowering the maximum legal interest rate from ten percent to six percent. The proposed legislation drew the ire of bankers and capitalists; it was also widely panned in the press, notably by Louisville Courier-Journal editor Henry Watterson. Ultimately, the Assembly compromised on a legal interest rate of eight percent. Another bill to lower the property tax rate from 45 to 40 cents per 100 dollars of taxable property encountered far less resistance and passed easily. Few bills passed during the session had statewide impact, despite McCreary's insistence that the legislature prefer general bills over bills of local impact. This fact, too, was widely criticized by the state's newspapers.

The issue of improving navigation along the Kentucky River was raised numerous times by Representative James Blue during the 1876 legislative session. Despite Blue's promises of manifold benefits to the state from such an investment, parsimonious legislators defeated a bill allocating funds for the improvements. The issue gained traction with some voters during the biennial legislative elections, however, which brought it back to the floor in the 1878 session. Prompted by recommendations from the Kentucky River Navigation Convention in 1877, McCreary abandoned his typical fiscal conservatism and joined the calls for improvements along the river. In response, legislators passed a largely ineffective bill providing that, if funds could be raised through special taxes in districts along the river, the state would provide the funds to maintain the improvements.

Also in the 1878 session, tax assessments for railroad property were raised to match those of other property. Agrarian interests were pleased that the legal interest rate was again lowered, now reaching the six percent they had proposed in the previous session. Non-economic reforms included the separation of Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College (later the University of Kentucky) from Kentucky University (later Transylvania University) and the establishment of a state board of health. Bills of local import again dominated the session, representing 90 percent of the acts and resolutions passed by the Assembly.

Along with Democrats John Stuart Williams, William Lindsay, and J. Proctor Knott, and Republican Robert Boyd, McCreary was nominated for a U.S. Senate seat in 1878. Democrats were divided by sectionalism and initially unable to unite behind one of their four candidates. After more than a week of caucusing among Democratic legislators, the nominations of McCreary, Knott, and Lindsay were withdrawn, and Williams was elected over Boyd. Historian Hambleton Tapp opined that the withdrawals were likely a part of some kind of deal among legislators, although the details of the deal, if it ever existed, were not made public.